Customs staff accused of smuggling

Jason Clare ... more work is needed to combat crime. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

AUSTRALIAN border security officials are helping organised crime syndicates smuggle multi-million-dollar shipments of illicit drugs and other contraband into Australia.

More than two dozen Customs and border protection officials are under investigation for corruption or misconduct by law enforcement agencies. Suspected offences include drug trafficking and leaking sensitive information.

The revelations put pressure on the government as it confronts calls from the opposition to hold an independent inquiry into Customs and the failure to stop the flood of drug and weapons importations.

A Herald investigation reveals:

Taskforce Polaris, a joint state-federal inquiry into maritime organised crime in NSW, is investigating more than 20 allegations involving corrupt government officials, including Customs employees and licensed Customs brokers;

the corruption watchdog has received more than 50 files on suspected corruption involving Customs officials since early last year;

Customs has suspended or sacked 15 officers since 2010 over misconduct or corruption allegations, including one with close ties to a Middle Eastern crime family in Sydney and an official caught snorting cocaine.

Some officials are privately discussing the need for a royal commission into organised crime in the maritime and aviation sectors.

The Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, yesterday conceded more needed to be done and signalled coming reforms.

The officials under investigation for aiding drug or tobacco traffickers are suspected of tipping off syndicates when their container is to be examined, suggesting methods to avoid detection and leaking top-secret information.

The revelations come amid government and police concerns about the ability of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity to combat the problems with its small budget, handful of investigators and limited jurisdiction.

The commission has no power to scrutinise agencies suspected of harbouring corrupt officials.

The government has rejected a recommendation by a parliamentary committee to give the commission oversight of the quarantine inspection service.

Mr Clare said he had recently ordered a review of the commission's oversight of Customs and had written to the heads of the Australian Crime Commission, the federal police and Customs ''outlining my expectations of them in detecting, disrupting and preventing corruption and seeking their advice about what further action they believe is required to make their organisations more corruption resistant''.

But the opposition spokesman on Customs, Michael Keenan, said budget cuts, including the loss of 340 staff and nearly $60 million in funding since 2010, were worsening the problem.

In a statement, the commission said the 55 referrals about Customs it had received since January last year involved ''an allegation or information that raises a corruption issue''. But it said not all issues raised would be substantiated.

Among the tainted officials is a Customs investigation officer who resigned last year. He had been suspended over his suspected association with a notorious Lebanese family in Sydney.

The links between the family and the official were scrutinised after a joint-agency inquiry that was probing illegal tobacco imports found dozens of leaked Customs files at a house of a member of the family.

The same family has relatives or close associates working as federal, licensed Customs agents for freight companies and in licensed wharf storage facilities.

Customs said in a statement that it had introduced reforms to combat corruption, including increased background checking and training.